ses were comfortably
installed. Such were the internal arrangements of this strange old
mansion. It had only one story; and its simple, massive style of
architecture gave evidence of a very remote antiquity."

Mr. Porter does not tell us whether all the dwellings of the Rephaim are
constructed after one plan, as, for instance, the houses of Pompeii
were, or whether there was variety in the architecture, and on many
other points of inquiry he is equally unsatisfactory. His strength is in
his one great fact,--that these cities are older than any known to
profane history, and that they yet exist undecayed and undecaying. The
charm of such a fact is so great, that we recur again and again to his
pages, with a forever unappeased famine for more knowledge, which we
hope some garrulous and gossipful traveller will soon arise to satisfy.

Of him--the beneficent future tourist--we shall willingly accept any
number of fables, if only he will add something more filling than Mr.
Porter has given us. It is true that this tourist will not have a mere
pleasure excursion, but will undergo much to merit the gratitude of his
readers. The land of Bashan is nomadically inhabited by a race of men
much fiercer than its ancient bulls; and Bedouins beset the movements of
the traveller, to pillage and slay wherever they are strong enough to
overcome his escort of Druses. Mr. Porter tells much of the perils he
incurred, and even of actual attacks made upon him by fanatical
Mussulmans while he sketched the wonders of the world's youth among
which they dwelt. For the present his book has a value unique and very
great: the scenes through which he passes have been heretofore unvisited
by travel, and the interest attaching to them is intense and universal.
The literal verification of many passages of Scripture supposed more or
less allegorical, must have its weight with all liberal thinkers; and,
as a contribution to the means of religious inquiry, this work will be
earnestly received.

_Life of Benjamin Silliman, M. D., LL. D., late Professor of Chemistry,
Mineralogy, and Geology in Yale College._ Chiefly from his Manuscript
Reminiscences, Diaries, and Correspondence. By GEORGE P. FISHER,
Professor in Yale College. In Two Volumes. New York: Charles Scribner &
Co.

Professor Fisher, in allowing the subject of this biography to tell the
story of his life, restricts himself very self-denyingly to here and
there a line of introduction or comment.